Dumoulin Dominates Stage 13 of 2016 Tour de France

After the craziness of Mont Ventoux, riders in the 2016 Tour de France were doubtless happy to confront a more predictable kind of challenge in the race’s first time trial. But it was a challenge nonetheless: 37.5km of lumpy, twisting roads, with a third day of the strong winds that have bedeviled the race.

If only that was the worst the Tour had to contend with; after the Bastille Day attack in Nice the night before, Tour organizer Amaury Sports Organization held meetings with police and other government officials, announcing that the race would continue with tightened security.

“It’s a day of mourning for France and the Tour de France,” said director Christian Prudhomme, noting the organization’s ties to Nice (The Paris-Nice stage race, which ASO organizes, often finishes a stage on the same Promenade des Anglais where the attack took place). “We wondered about having a race today or not. But in agreement with state authorities, we believe that the race must go on and we shouldn’t give in to the pressure of the people who would like us to change our lifestyle.” After a few minutes of silence in memory of the victims, Sam Bennett rolled off the start line and the race was on.

While he was sad and upset with the news overnight, none of the course difficulties themselves appeared to faze Tom Dumoulin, the Dutch time-trial specialist from Giant-Alpecin, who blazed the route in just over 50 minutes, unseating early leader Nelson Oliveira (Movistar). Dumoulin would spend the next two hours in the “hot seat” as rider after rider tried and failed to better his time.

In the fight for the overall, no one could match yellow jersey Chris Froome, who has been peerless among GC riders in time trials at the Tour. Despite the challenging conditions and winds that picked up later in the day, Froome was closest to Dumoulin at almost every intermediate time check and was the only rider to finish within roughly a minute of the Dutchman.

Trek-Segafredo’s Bauke Mollema is emerging as Froome’s most likely rival, but even he conceded 51 seconds to the defending champion as Froome’s gap to his competitors continues to grow. American Tejay van Garderen rode a solid race and is now in sixth overall.

Top Moment Richie Porte went out blazing fast, with the second-best time at the first intermediate check point, seven kilometers in. But he faded from there, while Froome picked up steam. With the hills and wind, pacing on the course was absolutely essential, and Froome was masterful at metering his effort. Mollema also rode a nearly perfect race.

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Why It Matters We’ll never know what might have been on Thursday’s Ventoux stage, had the trio of Porte, Mollema and Froome not crashed into the back of a stopped motorbike. But Mollema was the only rider able to bridge the gap after Froome’s attack, with Porte clamped to Froome’s wheel. Mollema is in the shape of his life right now and is perhaps the only rider really capable of challenging Froome, especially in terms of overall time. Nairo Quintana didn’t seem to have his trademark explosiveness on the Ventoux and was even dropped from the chase group at one point. Adam Yates is riding well but is relatively inexperienced in Grand Tours (it’s his second Tour de France). Porte is also riding very well, but after his disastrous flat tire and time loss on Stage 3, he’s 4:27 down and will have a lot of work to do to catch up. Froome, meanwhile, continues to pad his lead and can now race more defensively and force the others to attack him.

What You May Have MissedWindy conditions forced many riders to change equipment, opting for shallower-depth front wheels than they might otherwise have used. Romain Bardet took the start on a normal road bike fitted with aero bars and a rear disc wheel, while Fabio Aru opted against a disc wheel at all. One rider, Trek-Segafredo’s sprinter Edward Theuns, unfortunately crashed in the windy conditions and was taken to the hospital.

Thibaut Pinot of FdJ, who had carried the polka dot jersey as far as yesterday’s finish (where stage winner Thomas de Gendt took it), did not take the start today. Word is he’s suffering from a case of bronchitis.

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Polemics about yesterday’s finish continue. Mollema was upset that other riders were given the same finish time, and wondered what would have happened had he been the only one to crash. A controversy also erupted around Movistar’s Nairo Quintana, who was filmed briefly holding on to the back of a race moto to steer through the chaos. No fines or penalties were assessed to riders due to the incident, which was clearly out of their control.

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